


on the snow-covered field

by AmandaBecker



Series: Christmas is coming [4]
Category: Sanditon (TV 2019), Sanditon - Jane Austen
Genre: F/M, Parker children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21859171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmandaBecker/pseuds/AmandaBecker
Summary: A walk to a snow-covered field, brings back memories of old traditions...To uphold and revive traditions. Introducing new ones.For the "12 days of Sanditon" Challenge by Sanditon creative
Relationships: Charlotte Heywood & Sidney Parker, Charlotte Heywood/Sidney Parker
Series: Christmas is coming [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571278
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	on the snow-covered field

**Author's Note:**

> for Mum & Dad

"You look like a princess!" Jenny shouted to Charlotte as she stepped into the dining room in the morning.  
"Like a frost flower," Alicia replied.

And it was true, the apparently new, light blue dress with long sleeves and a nuance of darker appliqués made her skin appear a little paler, but left nothing to be desired. At least not for Sidney, who caught himself looking at her from top to toe. He had to clear his throat and force himself to look into her eyes as he wished her good morning. After he had explained that he wanted to go for a walk with the children, he said calmly,

"I wonder if Miss Heywood might want to come with us." 

Sidney looked into the round and then with an unreadable look back into her face.  
The kids shouted excitedly and Charlotte was very happy that they answered for her. She wouldn't have been able to.

"Well then go ahead, you five," Mary said and smiled knowingly into herself. 

They went in the direction of Lady Denham’s, but then turned into a piece of forest beforehand. After a while they came to a huge field. It glittered in the sunshine. Charlotte held her face in the sun and absorbed the warmth.

Sidney thought Alicia was right and Charlotte looked like a frost flower. She stood there, her eyes closed, her face stretched out to the sky. Her dark blue woollen cap kept her hair hidden. The matching scarf blew slightly in the wind. Her gloved hands lay on her sides. The cream coat lay in the snow and the dress looked out underneath. 

Completely lost in her sight, Sidney didn't notice the snowball Alicia threw at him. Surprised, he caught himself again and began a hunt for the children over the untouched snow. Charlotte found it a pity that they were now rumbling this glittering blanket, which had gently laid over the landscape, with their footsteps. 

But of course she couldn't help but smile at the sight the four of them. Her heart seemed to double when she heard Mr Parker laugh as all three children threw snow at him.

"Miss Heywood," he said to her suddenly alarmed.  
"Yes, Mr Parker?"  
"You're standing there so passively, you better help me!" He said with that impossible to resist crooked smile, and Charlotte was briefly distracted and asked  
"Hmmm?"  
"Come on."

He ran after the kids and she walked after them at a reasonable pace. She wanted to enjoy the surroundings and the playing and romp around over this large snow-covered meadow, making her think of home. Suddenly she was homesick and looked for a quiet place under a few trees.

Just as she stroked a little tear from her cheek, Mr Parker stood in front of her and looked at her anxiously.  
"What is it about, Miss Heywood?"  
"Oh, nothing." She waved off.  
"It's not nothing." With his penetrating gaze, he pierced her soul and she couldn't help but answer him.  
"I miss my family." A loud sob fled her and she hid her face behind her hands. That was really too embarrassing to cry in front of him.  
"I'm sorry." He said gently as he approached. 

"Yes, but...I..." She couldn't stop the tears, she didn't miss her family that much now, she thought. But the confusion that a certain gentleman caused in her, the pre-Christmas time made her sentimental and she just couldn't stop.

"Hey," he reached for her hands, pulled it away from her face and looked for her gaze.  
"It’s alright to miss them."

Her hands still in the grip of his, the gaze of the two deepened. He reached for her and wiped with his warm fingers, the tears from her cheek.  
Her lips opened to say something, but the words did not come out. She swallowed.

"We used to have a snowball fight on this field against our parents." He explained with a quick glance to the children playing catch on the field. He had such a gentle impression on his handsome face, remembering his childhood. Yet a shadow of pain also fell over his distinctive features.

"I'm sorry" Charlotte lovingly said to him as she slowly got used to the sight. And remembered how painful it must have been to lose his parents.  
"You don't have to. We had a great time." He smiles at her and then continued,  
"I tried to continue the tradition, but Tom didn't have the muse anymore, Arthur and Diana I stopped asking at some point."  
"Maybe someday you'll be able to get them to do it again."

He shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the snowy field.

"It's all the better that you continue this tradition with your brother's children."  
"And at some point with my own, I hope.“ Sidney said hesitantly. He was still holding her hand as he now gently pulled her towards the field.  
"I have no doubt about that," she muttered.  
"Well, first I have to find the right wife," he said laughing to lift the mood a little.

They both looked at each other, and the smile on their faces disappeared. Realizing that neither of them would ever want to come back to this place without the other.  
He pressed her hand. And thought, maybe I've already found her.

six years later....

Sidney ran after the children in the field, a cheer and laughter resounded over the snow-covered field. Arthur and Tom ran from the other side to the field to catch the group of children and throw snow at them. Mary and Diana sat in one of the carriages and drank the still warm tea.  
Georgiana gently swayed her baby in her arms as she tried with the other hand to hold the blanket that threatened to slip from her lap. Her husband gently put the blanket around her hips again and stuck it in place. Then he ran to the others on the field pulling his three-year-old daughter behind him.

When Sidney grabbed his son and threw him into the air, the laughter of the two warmed the hearts of everybody around them. Then Sidney slowly stepped towards his wife, took their daughter from her arms and threw her up too. 

As the laughing little girl ran to her brother and cousins, he took his wife's face in both hands and gently kissed her on the tip of her nose.  
No one in the family bothered Sidney to give his wife this attention. His father had done the same with his mother in the family circle. It was something like a tradition.

"It's so nice to be all of us together." She said.  
"Yes, you did well."  
"It was your idea" Oh, how she loved this man.  
"Well, you helped me."  
"Oh, yeah? How then?“ She breathed, once again completely spellbound by him.  
"Back then, when we were here together for the first time.“  
She looked at him questioningly.  
"When you answered yes to my question".

No longer able to grasp a clear thought, because he slowly slid down her neck with his fingers and whispered tenderly into her ear.  
"What question?" She knew he had asked THE question at another time.

"Maybe I've already found my future wife?"  
"You never asked such a question." She remembered.  
"I asked it in my head." He kissed her on her pulse point, and she sighed.  
"And in this moment you cried, ‘yes, sure Mr Parker, come on’...so" now he kissed her gently on the lips and embraced her then.

She cuddled nodding in his arms. Both looked at the snow-covered and now somewhat trampled field. The sunbeams tickled their faces.  
The children's laughter warmed their hearts. The snow glittered.

Yes, it was nice to remember the past. To uphold and revive traditions. Introducing new ones.  
Even if you may miss someone.


End file.
